Invest in what matters most

My letter to Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s Environment Minister, concerning his upcoming decision in February 2020, on whether or not to authorize the Oil Sands Teck Frontier Mine project.

Dear Jonathan Wilkinson,

Why does our present national debate over the pertinence of the oil industry backed Teck Frontier Mine completely omit the staggering growth of the Clean Energy Sector in Canada?

When weighing the job and GDP growth stats solely attributed to our country’s Clean Energy Sector over the last 10 years, it’s abundantly clear that the Teck Frontier Mine is a massively irresponsible endeavour both environmentally and economically.

According to Merran Smith, Executive director at Clean Energy Canada, there were 298,000 jobs in our country’s clean energy sector in 2017. The value of the clean energy sector grew by 4.8% a year between 2010 and 2017. Compare that to the whole of Canada’s economy, which grew by 3.6% annually over that same period. The number of jobs in the Clean Energy sector grew by 2.2% a year between 2010 and 2017. This is a full 60% faster than the national average. Investment in the clean energy sector went up by 70% between 2010 and 2017, mirroring well-above-average rises in its GDP. Clean transport was the biggest employer, providing 57% of the jobs in 2017. And finally, renewable energy supply is one of our biggest industries, providing 40% of the sector’s GDP contribution.

These numbers speak for themselves. Why invest in further polluting and endangering our planet? This oil sands mega-mine will push Canada’s carbon emissions to a point of no return. It will release six megatons of C02 per year and prop up a dying fossil fuel industry.

If built, it will violate Indigenous rights, destroy old-growth forest, pollute precious watersheds and destroy the habitats of endangered caribou and bison.

We cannot be climate leaders and build the Teck Frontier mine.

I am begging you, this February, invest in what matters most, the preservation of our natural world. Please reject this project.